Indigenous Community Planning

SPECIALIZATION ADVISING GUIDELINE

 

Leonie Sandercock is interviewed about the new Indigenous Community Planning specialization and about the Teach-in in November 2011 whose theme was 'Revitalizing Planning: the Indigenous Challenge

To view click link below:
http://aboriginal.ubc.ca/2011/12/16/ubc-launches-new-indigenous-community-planning-masters-program/

 

 

What do you need to know if you are working with/in an Indigenous community?

 

What are the implications for a more culturally relevant planning profession and practice?

 

How does mainstream planning need to adapt and change to achieve recognition of and justice for Indigenous peoples?

 

What difference does an Indigenous perspective make to the practice of planning?

 

What has been lost in the western planning perspective? What can be gained in empowering an indigenous perspective?

How does an Indigenous planning paradigm challenge existing planning practice in Canada? Do we need to ‘decolonize’ planning?

 

 

In Fall 2012 SCARP will introduce a new specialization, designed to attract Indigenous and non-Indigenous students who want to work with/in Indigenous communities.

Acknowledging Canada’s history of colonization of Indigenous peoples, and recognizing that planning has been a part of that process, SCARP’s concentration in Indigenous Planning seeks to empower Indigenous communities and community planners with the skills, capacity and knowledge to achieve their own aspirations for sustainable social and economic development. This is consistent with SCARP’s broader mission of working for sustainability planning through democratization. 

 

RATIONALE 

Planning is particularly important to Indigenous communities. Fundamental values rooted in land and culture; poor and limited land holdings; a critical need for more resources, capacity and better living conditions; and a direct relationship with the Federal Government (Dept of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, AANDC) are some of the features that distinguish Aboriginal communities in Canada. Numerous demands are now being placed on First Nations to develop various kinds of plans, from capital plans to economic development plans to comprehensive community plans. Of particular significance is the number of First Nations communities who rely on external planners and the implications of the imposed western perspectives and methodologies that they bring with them.

 

The Province of BC is committed to a ‘New Relationship’ with Aboriginal Peoples and is asking universities to step up and contribute. Many of BC’s First Nations are involved in a Treaty process that, once completed, will place enormous planning responsibilities on First Nations. Legislation mandates that government agencies responsible for land and resource management planning have a duty to consult Aboriginal people. Most communities are under-resourced to meet these growing demands for consultation. Since 2005, the BC region of the Dept of AANDC has been a strong supporter of Comprehensive Community Plans (CCPs) and has provided financial assistance for the completion of such plans, and supports a process that is community-based and community-driven and that focuses on the unique circumstances and priorities of the First Nation, All of which means that planners must develop literacies in working with First Nations towards these goals.

 

Many Indigenous communities have suffered from development schemes, poor planning, funding programs, service delivery and the imposition of rules and facilities inappropriate to Indigenous culture. They struggle with high levels of unemployment, school drop-out, high teen pregnancy rates, high suicide rates, diabetes, drug abuse, inadequate housing and poor infrastructure. These interconnected challenges require an interdisciplinary approach that is inherent to planning. The demographic shift in the Aboriginal population (becoming a majority in some smaller non-metropolitan communities, as well as increasing numbers of urban Aboriginal populations, and a growing number of young people) provides further reasons for developing First Nations’ planning capacity. For all of these reasons, Aboriginal communities have significant and growing demands for qualified planners in their revitalization and (re)building efforts. Planning can be a means to empower Indigenous communities, to avoid further exploitation and to gain practical and everyday control over their own destiny.

 

Planning by, and with, First Nations requires specific skills and abilities, whether  planners are Indigenous or non-Indigenous.  Students need not only substantive knowledge of planning’s interdisciplinary components (legal, economic, ecological, etc), but also an understanding of the political, social and cultural protocols, history, philosophy, social structure, traditional knowledge, and ecology of First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. Cross-cultural skills, community participation techniques, and a solid grounding in ethics and decolonizing research methodologies and practices are also essential.

 

Our approach uses community-based and land-based learning; emphasizes mutual and transformative learning; and integrates Indigenous Knowledge. Our scope is Canada-wide, but with a focus on working with/in First Nations communities in British Columbia, and learning from case studies from Australia, USA, and New Zealand)

 

Curriculum requirements

 

Current SCARP core: 5 courses + Thesis or Professional Project

In addition to the five SCARP core courses, students in the ICP specialization will take five core courses (15 credits) and do a Practicum of 12 credits over two semesters in 2nd year (equivalent to the existing Thesis).

 

We will offer an optional Internship during which a student will be placed in a First Nations community in the Lower Mainland.

 

ICP Concentration core requirements within SCARP

PLAN 548( ) Decolonizing Planning: theories, methodologies, practices (new course, Leonie Sandercock)

Aboriginal Law and Governance (new course, Darlene Johnston)

Plan 548F: Sustainable Planning & Governance Approaches to Whole Region Change (John O’Riordan)

Plan 503: Strategic Planning for Community Economic Development (Will Trousdale)

Plan 548E: Cross-cultural Planning  Educating the Heart (Norma-Jean McLaren)

 

 In addition to this core, ICP students will complete current program ‘Dimenion requirements’ [choosing one from each of the four: Ecology & Risk, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Social Dimension of Planning and Planning Processes and Analysis]. Note that some of the ICP Concentration core requirements are also listed as Dimension requirements.

 

Recommended Electives (list to be expanded)

Environmental Policy and Analysis: An Introduction to Risk Management and Decision Analysis (PLAN 599)

Multimedia for Planners (PLAN 548R)

FN and Co-Management (REM 662, SFU course);

Negotiation and Intercultural Conflict Resolution (LAW 5xx); 

FN Social Issues (SOWK 425);

FN and Public Health: Ethics, Policy & Practice (SPPH 536)

FN and Forest Land Management (FRST 522)

 

Summary of program architecture:

SCARP Core: 15 credits

IP core: 15 credits + Practicum (12 credits)

Distribution requirement: 12 credits (some of these courses overlap with IP core)

[Details may change as we fine-tune this].

 

Admissions goal: 3-6 students in Years 1-3, building to 8-10, depending on funding and faculty resources.

 

This curriculum has been designed in cooperation with the Musqueam First Nation on whose traditional territory UBC is located, and in consultation with Distinguished Professor Ted Jojola (Pueblo Nation) from the School of Community & Regional Planning, University of New Mexico. Prof Jojola is the founder of the Indigenous Planning division of the American Planning Association and consultant to the Canadian Institute of Planners.

 

Curriculum Advisory Committee:

Chair, Leonie Sandercock (SCARP)

Leona Sparrow (Musqueam, Director, Treaty, Lands and Resources); Lyana Patrick (Carrier, SCARP PhD student); Kamala Todd (Cree-Metis film maker and social planner); Patrick Stewart (Nisga’a, architect); Juliet van Vliet (SCARP Masters student); Michael Anhorn (BC Housing); Jeff Cook (Beringia Community Planning); Will Trousdale (Ecoplan International); Dianne Sparrow (Musqueam); Larissa Grant (Musqueam); Aftab Erfan (SCARP PhD student); Nathan Edelson (42nd St Consulting, SCARP Adjunct)

 

NB ‘Aboriginal’ is the descriptor used by the Govt of Canada and recognized in the Canadian Constitution, to cover First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. ‘Indigenous’ is a term generally preferred by those three groups. There are 45 unique Nations within the borders of Canada, plus the Inuit and Metis peoples.